


Substitutions

by coreopsis



Category: Tremors: The Series
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-04-02
Updated: 2004-04-02
Packaged: 2017-10-03 12:08:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coreopsis/pseuds/coreopsis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Tyler moves to town, Nancy detects a difference in her standing date with Burt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Substitutions

It happens the first Wednesday of every other month as predictable as sunrise. There's a knock at her door at precisely 8:30 p.m. She sweeps her hair from behind her ears and makes sure her dress is straight, then she walks on bare feet to answer the door. Burt stands on her porch, all cleaned up and aftershaved, wearing an expression she never sees on his face at any other time on any other day. Over the years, she's tried to describe it, if only to herself, but as close as she's ever come was to think it was somewhere between desperation and resignation.

Burt needs someone, needs a narrowly defined intimacy that he can count on always being there, but he doesn't like it, maybe even resents the hell out of it. He brought her presents at first. A potted plant, a book on desert survival, a new knife, always some token to show his appreciation. After a while, she told him to stop because he'd hadn't had much left after he blew up the house and Heather left him and she didn't need any more MREs, so now he usually just brings a six pack of beer. They only drink one a piece before he leaves and she keeps the rest for later.

They don't talk much on these nights. There's not much to say since Burt would rather give El Blanco a sponge bath than talk about his feelings or anything else intimately personal, and Nancy long ago stopped trying to get him to make any normal sort of small talk. It's not romance, although it is love...of a sort, the same she feels for Jodi or Rosalita. She doesn't _need_ a man on a regular basis, but she enjoys having one just the same. She gets a giddy thrill from taking Burt's rough hand in hers and leading him into her bedroom. She loves kissing him for hours because that's the one thing her vibrator can't give her that she really misses.

She undresses him first, always, and gets him settled on the bed before she slips her dress off. She doesn't make a production of it, but she tries to keep her movements slow and sensual, for her as much as for him. When they make love, she lets him take the lead unless he indicates he wants her to do it. She likes it either way, but he's always more affectionate afterward when she's on top. She never thought much about that until Tyler came to town.

Her trysts with Burt changed gradually, but she noticed immediately because she always does. She's tuned in to other people, empathetic to their feelings, but even so, a blind person would notice the sparks. So now she smiles compassionately and tries not to wonder how soon it'll end. She knows it will. She can feel it now every time he touches her that he's not thinking of her. He's not kissing _her_, even though it's her mouth on his.

When he stops coming around, she won't be surprised. She won't be hurt either, but she's going to miss him for a while. She'll keep expecting his knock on her door on the designated night and will have to remind herself that he's finally with Tyler. Because that's the only thing that'll make him stop coming, unless she tells him their strange little arrangement is over. And she won't do that, unless it becomes apparent that he's not going to admit that he's started using her as a substitute for Tyler and go for the real thing.

Nancy watches Tyler flirt with Rosalita and the occasional beauty queen and then check for Burt's reaction. She sees the way he hangs on Burt's every word even while he's standing up for his own opinions. She knows Tyler's got it just as bad as Burt does, and she could yenta them together but she won't. These things have to happen in their own time and if it's meant to be she believes it will happen without any help from her. Besides, she's in no hurry to be loverless again, even if it does seem inevitable. Being alone doesn't bother her. She wouldn't live in Perfection in the first place if she didn't want her solitude, but maybe she needs a bit of narrowly defined intimacy as much as Burt does. She could share her entire life with a man, if she could meet one who is self-actualized and open to the universe and all its wonders. Burt does not fit her criteria for a mate and never will, but he's a good substitute in the meantime.

the end.


End file.
